By Bob Sutton

DURHAM — North Carolina’s pitching didn’t hold up in the early innings in a 10–4 loss to Clemson in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament semifinal on a rainy Saturday afternoon at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

The Tar Heels (35–22) were bounced after winning their two pool-play games, but they weren’t able to defend their tournament title from a year ago.

Seventh-seeded North Carolina faced an 8–1 deficit through three innings against one of the country’s hottest teams.

“The story of the game was pitching,” UNC coach Scott Forbes said. “You’re down 8–1 before you blink.”

The Tar Heels will await their NCAA tournament destination when that’s revealed at noon Monday.

“Now we regroup and get ready for the NCAA tournament,” Forbes said.

Third-seeded Clemson (42–17) has built a 15-game winning streak going into Sunday afternoon’s title clash with Miami, which defeated top-seeded Wake Forest 7–2 in the other semifinal at UNC’s Boshamer Stadium.

North Carolina starter Connor Bovair didn’t make it through the first inning, yielding five runs and facing eight batters. It marked the second time in his last three starts that Bovair failed to finish the first inning.

In the top of the second, UNC reliever Ben Peterson asked for the grounds crew to work on the mound. But the Tigers kept pouring it on.

“I thought going into this game, if we were going to win it, it would be a 4–3, 5–4 type game,” Forbes said. “We did get to that four.”

Meanwhile, Tigers starter Caden Grice had the Tar Heels under control. He worked seven innings, giving up three runs and four hits while striking out nine.

“Kept a very good team, a very good offense to just some solo runs here and there,” Clemson coach Erik Bakich said.

The Tar Heels finished with five hits to match their second-fewest total of the season. Two of those were solo home runs by Tomas Frick, who has 12 long balls this year.

Bovair (4–4) recorded just one out before Grice roped a two-run double into the right-field corner. That put the Tar Heels in a deficit for the first time in the tournament.

It got worse four pitches later. Billy Amick belted a two-run homer off the iconic Bull above the left-field wall.

With two outs, Blake Wright hit his eighth homer of the season with an opposite-field shot to right field.

“Anytime you can jump out to an early lead like that, it allows everyone to settle in,” Bakich said.

North Carolina got right back to it, with Hunter Stokely’s RBI double in the second. But with runners at second and third with one out, the threat fizzled.

Amick greeted UNC’s third pitcher, Matthew Matthijs, with a two-run triple off the fence in center field.

The Tar Heels made it 8–2 on Alberto Osuna’s solo home run in the fifth. It was his 10th homer, though the first since April 25. Frick mashed with a two-out solo blast in the sixth. His second homer of the game came in the ninth.

Cooper Ingle of Clemson was 3–for–3 in just three innings before exiting with a knee injury. Will Taylor also had three hits among the Tigers’ 14 hits.

Even though Clemson stranded 15 runners, Frick said the Tar Heels sensed they had chances, too.

“Trying to fight back into the game,” he said. “We were just trying to battle.”

Frick was coming off a 5-RBI game vs. Virginia on Thursday.

“A special kid in my book,” Forbes said. “You see where he has come. He has worked his way into getting where he is.”

NOTES — The Tar Heels fell to 0–4 vs. Clemson, also losing three games last week to end the regular season. … Since sweeping N.C. State, the Tar Heels are 2-5. … North Carolina won the 2019 and 2022 tournaments. … Frick is tied for second on the team in home runs with injured center fielder Vance Honeycutt. Mac Horvath (22) leads the team.

Bob Sutton is a veteran ACC sports writer who was the sports editor of the Burlington Times-News for 25 years.